How to set up a webserver on a machine with Ansible and Apache! :)

1. Install Apache web server

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To install Apache, you can use the apt module. Here is an example playbook task:

  - name: Install Apache web server
    apt:
      name: apache2
      state: present

2. Start Apache service

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To start the Apache service, you can use the service module. Here is an example playbook task:

  - name: Start Apache
    service:
      name: apache2
      state: started

3. Enable Apache service to start on boot

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To enable the Apache service to start on boot, you can use the systemd module. Here is an example playbook task:

  - name: enable Apache
    systemd:
      name: apache2
      state: enabled

4. Create a virtual host configuration file

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To create a virtual host configuration file, you can use the template module. Here is an example playbook task:

  - name: virtual host configuration file
    template:
      src: templates/virtualhost.conf.j2
      dest: /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

What is a virtual host configuration file?

• A virtual host configuration file tells a webserver how to handle requests for a specific website.
• It allows the webserver to host multiple websites on the same server, each with its own unique domain name.
• A virtual host configuration file contains information about the specific domain name and web root directory for a website.
• When a visitor sends a request to the webserver, the webserver looks at the virtual host configuration file for the domain name and serves the website files from the appropriate web root directory.

In this example, templates/virtualhost.conf.j2 is the path to the template file on the Ansible control machine, and /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf is the path on the target host where the virtual host configuration file will be created.

5. Enable the virtual host

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To enable the virtual host, you can use the apache2_module module. Here is an example playbook task:

  - name: Enable virtual host
    apache2_module:
      name: ssl
      state: present
      state: enabled

6. Restart Apache service

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To restart the Apache service, you can use the service module. Here is an example playbook task:

  - name: Restart Apache
    service:
      name: apache2
      state: restarted

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Here is the complete playbook that puts all of these tasks together:

- hosts: all 
  become: true
  tasks:
  - name: Install Apache web server
    apt:
      name: apache2
      state: present
  - name: Start Apache
    service:
      name: apache2
      state: started
  - name: enable Apache
    systemd:
      name: apache2
      state: enabled
  - name: virtual host configuration file
    template:
      src: templates/virtualhost.conf.j2
      dest: /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf
  - name: Enable virtual host
    apache2_module:
      name: ssl
      state: present
      state: enabled
  - name: Restart Apache
    service:
      name: apache2
      state: restarted